My sword instantly rejected the aether as if hating the energy. However, this time, I wouldn’t give up. This needed to work; otherwise, we would never be able to win.

“Hahaha!” Zero laughed from far away as he uttered some words, most likely of mockery.

However, because of how focused I was at the moment, I did not even glance in his direction. I kept my eyes on my glowing sword, trying my best for the aether to mix with my sword aura. But every time I tried to do so, the energy just bounced off the sword; it simply wouldn’t accept it, no matter how hard I tried.

It was tiring. I could feel my reserves of aether slowly leaving my body, and if this continued, then I would definitely run out of aether before the fight even started. Nevertheless, I continued. I knew that this was the only way to achieve victory. It was also a good thing that Zero was just watching as I did all those things.

If he had attacked us while knowing that we couldn’t injure him whatsoever, it would have been impossible to defeat him. We were lucky that his ego was so ridiculously massive that he would just laugh at us and let us strike first.

Still, I removed those thoughts from my mind as I tried to think why my sword aura would refuse to use that energy.

“Caedrel, that purple energy. Send it toward my sword. I’m pretty sure I’ll find a way to make it work,” Hank suddenly said he had just watched me and that energy with little to no idea of how it worked.

But, for some strange reason, I felt like he was right. Hank didn’t say useless things. In fact, he had never said useless things ever since I had met him. If he said something, it was because he was sure that it would work.

He had never even experienced the use of that energy, but when he spoke with such confidence, it was as if he had understood it on a different fundamental level. I wasn’t sure if he understood how to use it better than mine. However, I knew that his talent was much greater than mine.

Without wasting any more time, I decided to stop using the aether on my sword and slowly guided it toward Hank. Within seconds, the aether energy in the palm of my hand blossomed, and I headed for Hank’s sword. At first, it seemed repulsed by it, but within a few moments, its attitude had completely changed. It swirled around his sword, mixing with this incredible sword aura.

Truth be told, it was better that Hank was the one who could do this since his sword aura was so much stronger than mine on so many different levels.

It took only a few seconds for his sword to now possess a dark purple aura illuminating from his sword. The look on Zero’s face completely changed, and without saying another word, he dashed forward, going against his words.

However, as he did so, Hank launched his attack right away, noticing the movement. It seemed that Zero had lost the confidence that he had previously had.

I had been 100% right. Aether was truly the key to this fight, no matter what. Aether was most likely the only thing that could harm Zero, which was why he had gone against his promise to us. He moved extremely fast. However, he wasn’t fast enough to escape Hank’s vision.

After all, Hank had been able to keep up with the strange creature that had given me the impression that it could teleport. Hank’s abilities when it came to observing things were certainly superior to mine. I had to admit that it was a good thing that Hank had joined me; without him, this fight would have been absolutely impossible to win unless some kind of miracle happened.

Hank swung his sword down toward Zero.

“Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t move?” I shouted as I laughed at Zero, who was currently doing his best to dodge the strike heading his way. However, Hank’s sword aura was just too massive for Zero to dodge it as a whole.

Because of his ego, Zero was bound to take some damage from this strike, and his chances of winning this fight had just lowered tremendously.

As Hank swung down his sword in Zero’s direction, Zero tried to dash in a new direction. However, as he did so, Hank also adjusted his strike. It was impossible for Zero to leave unscathed from this, and just as it was about to reach Zero’s body, Zero decided to give up one of his arms, barely dodging the strike.

“ARGH! What have you done to me!” Zero roared as blood slowly trickled from where he had just lost his arm. “And YOU, how can you use aether? Are you really a demi-god!”

Zero was just at a loss for words. However, even now, as he was back against the wall. He continued to talk to us. However, I didn’t even bother entertaining him. I had to catch him since he was in such a bad situation.

I dashed forward toward him as I swung my sword at the same time. “I made a deal with a God; I gave up my soul in exchange for this power.”

As my sword approached his abdomen, I saw that Zero’s smile had completely disappeared.

“Y-You gave up your soul for this power? Then, how are you still there in front of me!” He shouted as he bent down right at the good timing, evading my strike. “This makes no sense. You have to be lying about all this. There is no way that you gave up your soul. Or else, you wouldn’t be as powerful as right now. You’re clearly lying!”

“Less talking and more talking, Zero, or maybe you could tell me your real name since I already know that you are one of the sons of the Demon King?” I said with a smirk as Zero completely lost his mind as I uttered those words.

“Y-You! How? How do you know this?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep